Have you ever glanced at the paragraphing on a piece of student writing and had a gut reaction? How accurate was your gut reaction? My guess is that your gut reaction was surprisingly accurate. I did not say perfectly accurate or even accurate, just surprisingly accurate. If researchers did a study, I suspect that gut reactions based on paragraphing style would be highly accurate statistically speaking. In fact, I doubt there is any single metric that is more revealing for making accurate gut reactions than paragraphing style. By and large, if students get paragraphing, they get writing. If they don’t, they don’t.
I wrote an entire free ebook on students’ paragraphing style called The Ten Stages of Paragraph and Multi-Paragraph Mastery. To create that ebook, I examined two kinds of independent student writing:
1. daily writing across the curriculum
2. state and district writing assessments
To write that ebook, I put paragraph theory aside and examined real student writing. I examined the best student-paragraph writing and the worst student-paragraph writing and everything in between. As I examined, I asked these questions:
1. What makes excellent student-paragraph writing excellent?
2. What makes terrible student-paragraph writing terrible?
To bring objectivity to my process, I considered four metrics (among other things):
1. words per sentence / average words per sentence
2. words per paragraph / average words per paragraph
3. sentences per paragraph / average sentences per paragraph
4. paragraphs per whole composition
When we have a gut reaction over a writers’ paragraphing style, those are the numbers we are looking at whether we realize it or not. Of course, when writing The Ten Stages of Paragraph and Multi-Paragraph Mastery, I was not using gut reaction. I analyzed independent student writing. One collection of independent student writing that I analyzed was from the Oregon State Writing Assessment.
The Oregon State Writing Assessment Paragraph Metrics
Below you will find a paragraph count for an entire collection of student essays. These essays are examples of independent student writing—i.e., this is how students write. The sample essays I examined are released student-writing samples from the Oregon State Writing Assessment.
What grade do you teach? Well, I probably did a paragraph count for your grade, as I did a paragraph count for 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade, 6th grade, 7th grade, 8th grade, and 10th grade.
I used these three metrics in my paragraph counts, and they tell a surprisingly interesting and complete story:
1. number of paragraphs in the whole composition
2. number of sentences in each paragraph
3. average number of sentences per paragraph
A Paragraph Count Example: Understanding the Numbers and the Math
Clearly, you will need to understand THE NUMBERS, so please take a close look at this example and explanation. Here are THE NUMBERS for the highest scoring 3rd-grade essay:
• 4/3/1/2/5 [ 15 sentences / 5 paragraphs = 3.0 average ]
This high-scoring essay was composed of 5 paragraphs of varying lengths; the average length of the paragraphs is 3 sentences. This is pretty simple math. However, this simple math reveals a number of important truths about student writing.
Oregon’s Scoring System
We have examined the number system for the paragraph counts. However, we have one more number system to examine—the number system for the Oregon State essay scores. Here it is:
1 = Low; 2 = Medium Low; 3 = Medium; 4 = Medium High; 5 = High.
Oregon’s Genres: Why Just Expository and Persuasive Writing?
The Oregon State Writing Assessment samples are from four genres: 1) narrative, 2) imaginative, 3) expository, and 4) persuasive/argument. However, the imaginative samples are all narratives, so in effect, we have three genres.
I only analyzed the expository and persuasive writing samples. Although many narrative paragraphs use the same principles as expository and persuasive paragraphs, many more don’t. Additionally, narrative writing often includes dialogue, and that changes the nature of the paragraphing. As you probably know, with dialogue, we begin a new paragraph with each new speaker. In the Oregon writing samples, many students used dialogue in their narratives, and many others didn’t. For this reason, a paragraph count of narrative and imaginative writing would be confusing and misleading. As such, I have not included a paragraph count for either of these types of writing.
Expository and argument paragraphs use the same principles and the same basic structure. In short, writers construct the paragraphs around a main idea or main point. This is not always the case with narratives.
The Truth About Paragraphs: It’s Not What You Think!
Be sure to read The Ten Stages of Paragraph and Multi-Paragraph Mastery. Also, go to the library and check out a large collection of newspapers, magazines, journals, and books from different genres and for different audiences. Now compare and contrast how these writers create their paragraphs. If you run THE NUMBERS, you are going to find a wide variety of paragraph styles.
For the most part, we teach students how to write one type of paragraph—formal paragraphs based on traditional paragraph theory. This style of paragraphing works great in formal academic writing, but students also write in the real world and for many different purposes. The best student writers figure out how to use traditional paragraph theory as a foundation for creating effective writing. But they also know when they have changed the topic, so they indent. In short, the best student writers know that paragraph is both a noun and a verb!
The truth of the matter is this: Paragraph style in real writing is a result of many aspects of writing: 1) personal writing style, 2) genre, 3) audience, 4) content, 5) tone, and 6) length of the whole composition. Many of these aspects are interconnected.
Analyzing What Follows
The paragraph numbers alone tell a revealing story. Of course, you may also want to download a few or all of the released student-writing samples from the Oregon State Writing Assessment. I would love to explain and comment on what I see below, but that would be nine or more additional pages of text, and I covered most of what I see in The Ten Stages of Paragraph and Multi-Paragraph Mastery.
A Few Questions and Concepts to Ponder as You Analyze:
1. Look for the patterns and trends. What do the best writers do and what to the struggling writers do? How do the paragraphs change from the low scores to the high scores?
2. Compare across grades. What do you see? Two things are surprisingly clear: The best writer in third-grade paragraphs the same way that the best paragraph writers in the higher grades do. The lowest scores are always poorly paragraphed text, and often unparagraphed text.
3. How does what you teach your students about paragraphs relate to what you see? Does what you teach your students about paragraphs create writing success across the curriculum and on state writing assessments? Or does what you teach your students about paragraphs cause problems and confusion because it’s simply not how the best writers create paragraphs?
By the way, if you need to improve your students’ paragraph and multi-paragraph writing, be sure to check out Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay. It’s the fastest, most effective way to teach students organized multi-paragraph essay writing… Guaranteed!
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Let’s Look at the Students’ Paragraphing Styles!
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Paragraph Length: 3rd Grade Writing Samples
Score 1: Expository – Score: Low – Title: “A Monkey or a Tiger”
- 1 paragraph [ 2 sentences / 1 paragraph = 2.0 average ]
Score 2: Expository – Score: Medium Low – Title: “A Rabbit”
- 1 paragraph [ 4 sentences / 1 paragraph = 4.0 average ]
Score 3: Expository – Score: Medium – Title: “I Would Choose a Hamster”
- 1 paragraph [ 5 sentences / 1 paragraph = 5.0 average ]
Score 4: Expository – Score: Medium High – Title: “My Class Pet”
- 1 paragraph [ 15 sentences / 1 paragraph = 15.0 average ]
Score 5: Expository – Score: High – Title: “A New Class Pet”
- 4/3/1/2/5 [ 15 sentences / 5 paragraphs = 3.0 average ]
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Paragraph Length: 4th Grade Writing Samples
Score 1: Expository – Score: Low – Title: “The Beast”
- 1 paragraph [ 4 sentences / 1 paragraph = 4.0 average ]
Score 2: Expository – Score: Medium Low – Title: “Olympic Swimmer”
- 6/4/2/3 [ 15 sentences / 4 paragraphs = 3.75 average ]
Score 3: Expository – Score: Medium – Title: “Pro Skateboarder”
- 5/3/3/3 [ 14 sentences / 4 paragraphs = 3.5 average ]
Score 4: Expository – Score: Medium High – Title: “Everything a Kid Could Want”
- 3/3/3 [ 9 sentences / 3 paragraphs = 3.0 average ]
Score 5: Expository – Score: High – Title: “Paleontologist”
- 3/2/4/3/1 [ 13 sentences / 5 paragraphs = 2.6 average ]
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Paragraph Length: 5th Grade Writing Samples
Score 1: Expository – Score: Low – Title: “Robort”
- 1 paragraph [ 8 sentences / 1 paragraph = 8.0 average ]
Score 1: Persuasive – Score: Low – Title: “Universal Caring Award”
- 3/2 [ 5 sentences / 2 paragraphs = 2.5 average ]
Score 2: Expository – Score: Medium Low – Title: “Toy Maker”
- 3/1/3 [ 7 sentences / 3 paragraphs = 2.33 average ]
Score 2: Persuasive – Score: Medium Low – Title: “Helpful People Deserve Awards”
- 2/3/2 [ 7 sentences / 3 paragraphs = 2.33 average ]
Score 3: Expository – Score: Medium – Title: “Dora”
- 2/3/4/5 [ 14 sentences / 4 paragraphs = 3.5 average ]
Score 3: Persuasive – Score: Medium – Title: “My Mom Deserves a Medal”
- 4/3/3/3/2 [ 12 sentences / 5 paragraphs = 2.4 ]
Score 4: Expository – Score: Medium High – Title: “My Favorite Toy”
- 3/4/2/3/4 [ 16 sentences / 5 paragraphs = 3.2 average ]
Score 4: Persuasive – Score: Medium High – Title: “My Dad Deserves an Award”
- 1/6/5/1 [ 13 sentences / 4 paragraphs = 3.25 average ]
Score 5: Expository – Score: High – Title: “Toy of the Future”
- 9/3/1 [ 13 sentences / 3 paragraphs = 4.33 average ]
Score 5: Persuasive – Score: High – Title: “My Sister Meg”
- 5/4/3/5/3 [ 20 sentences / 5 paragraphs = 4.0 average ]
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Need to Get Results Teaching Writing? Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay Is Your Solution!
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Paragraph Length: 6th Grade Writing Samples
Score 1: Expository – Score: Low – Title: “Sayda”
- 1 paragraph [ 10 sentences / 1 paragraph = 10.0 average ]
Score 1: Persuasive – Score: Low – Title: “Soccer is a Healthy Sport”
- 5/4/5 [ 14 sentences / 3 paragraphs = 4.66 average ]
Score 2: Expository – Score: Medium Low – Title: “Mia Hamm”
- 2/3/1/1/1 [ 8 sentences / 5 paragraphs = 1.6 average ]
Score 2: Persuasive – Score: Medium Low – Title: “Softball”
- 1 paragraph [ 8 sentences / 1 paragraph = 8.0 average ]
Score 3: Expository – Score: Medium – Title: “Toby Acres”
- 5/9/7/6/3 [ 30 sentences / 5 paragraphs = 6.0 average ]
Score 3: Persuasive – Score: Medium – Title: “Join a Healthy Activity”
- 1/2/1/2/1 [ 7 sentences / 5 paragraphs = 1.4 average ]
Score 4: Expository – Score: Medium High – Title: “Determined”
- 4/7/4/4/2 [ 21 sentences / 5 paragraphs = 4.2 average ]
Score 4: Persuasive – Score: Medium High – Title: “Staying in Shape”
- 2/7/11/7/3 [ 30 sentences / 5 paragraphs = 6.0 average ]
Score 5: Expository – Score: High – Title: “Ann Sullivan”
- 2/3/2/5/2/5 [ 19 sentences / 6 paragraphs = 3.16 average ]
Score 5: Persuasive – Score: High – Title: “Let’s Go Swim”
- 5/3/2/3/2 [ 15 sentences / 5 paragraphs = 3.0 average ]
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Paragraph Length: 7th Grade Writing Samples
Score 1: Expository – Score: Low – Title: “Responsibilities”
- 3/3/2/2/1 [ 11 sentences / 5 paragraphs = 2.2 average ]
Score 1: Persuasive – Score: Low – Title: “Can’t Survive Without Sports”
- 2/5/2/3 [ 12 sentences / 4 paragraphs = 3.0 average ]
Score 2: Expository – Score: Medium Low – Title: “Trent’s Responsibilities”
- 1 paragraph [ 9 sentences / 1 paragraph = 9.0 average ]
Score 2: Persuasive – Score: Medium Low – Title: “Music, Sports, and Art”
- 7/4/2 [ 13 sentences / 3 paragraphs = 4.33 average ]
Score 3: Expository – Score: Medium – Title: “Keeping Up Grades”
- 12/3/5/2/5 [ 27 sentences / 5 paragraphs = 5.4 average ]
Score 3: Persuasive – Score: Medium – Title: “Off the Streets”
- 4/2/3/2 [ 11 sentences / 4 paragraphs = 2.75 average ]
Score 4: Expository – Score: Medium High – Title: “Responsibility of Boxes”
- 5/3/4/2/2 [ 16 sentences /5 paragraphs = 3.2 average ]
Score 5: Persuasive – Score: High – Title: “Keep Music”
- 4/3/2/4/3/3/3 [ 22 sentences / 7 paragraphs = 3.14 average ]
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Paragraph Length: 8th Grade Writing Samples
Score 1: Expository – Score: Low – Title: “How this Quote is True”
- 3/3/3/3/3 [ 12 sentences / 4 paragraphs = 3.0 average ]
Score 1: Persuasive – Score: Low – Title: “Best Friend”
- 2/3/1 [ 6 sentences / 3 paragraphs = 2.0 average ]
Score 2: Expository – Score: Medium Low – Title: “Better Next Time”
- 1/2/1/1 [ 5 sentences / 4 paragraphs = 1.25 average ]
Score 2: Persuasive – Score: Medium Low – Title: “All People Should Get an Award”
- 3/3/3/4 [ 13 sentences / 4 paragraphs = 3.25 average ]
Score 3: Expository – Score: Medium – Title: “Never Give Up”
- 2/2/4/2 [ 10 sentences / 4 paragraphs = 2.5 average ]
Score 3: Persuasive – Score: Medium – Title: “Why my Coach Should Get an Award”
- 2/5/4/1 [ 12 sentences / 3 paragraphs = 3.0 average ]
Score 4: Expository – Score: Medium High – Title: “Reaching Your Goal”
- 1/4/3/3/3/1 [ 15 sentences /6 paragraphs = 2.5 average ]
Score 4: Persuasive – Score: Medium High – Title: “Meriam Hopkins”
- 2/3/4/4/3 [ 16 sentences / 4 paragraphs = 4.0 average ]
Score 5: Expository – Score: High – Title: “What Does it Mean for Me?”
- 5/6/5/2/2 [ 20 sentences / 5 paragraphs = 4.0 average ]
Score 5: Persuasive – Score: High – Title: “Could You Be Doing More?”
- 4/4/7/7/4/3 [ 29 sentences / 6 paragraphs = 4.83 average ]
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Paragraph Length: 10th Grade Writing Samples
Score 1: Expository – Score: Low – Title: “Video Games”
- 4/4/2 [ 10 sentences / 3 paragraphs = 3.33 average ]
Score 1: Persuasive – Score: Low – Title: “Drinking Laws”
- 6/5/1/2 [ 14 sentences / 4 paragraphs = 3.5 average ]
Score 2: Expository – Score: Medium Low – Title: “Fads in Clothing and Music”
- 3/5/5/5/6/5 [ 29 sentences / 6 paragraphs = 4.83 average ]
Score 2: Persuasive – Score: Medium Low – Title: “Job Laws”
- 3/3/2/1/4 [ 13 sentences / 5 paragraphs = 2.6 average ]
Score 3: Expository – Score: Medium – Title: “Reality Television”
- 3/3/3/4/4/2 [ 19 sentences / 6 paragraphs = 3.16 average ]
Score 3: Persuasive – Score: Medium – Title: “Keeping Teens from their Families”
- 11/9/8/5 [ 33 sentences / 4 paragraphs = 8.25 average ]
Score 4: Expository – Score: Medium High – Title: “Fashions”
- 1/2/3/2/3/4/3/3/1 [ 22 sentences / 9 paragraphs = 2.45 average ]
Score 4: Persuasive – Score: Medium High – Title: “Graduated Licensing”
- 4/4/4/4/3/2 [ 21 sentences / 6 paragraphs = 3.5 average ]
Score 5: Expository – Score: High – Title: “Fads in Technology”
- 5/10/5/6 [ 26 sentences / 4 paragraphs = 6.5 average ]
Score 5: Persuasive – Score: High – Title: “One Law that Should Affect Teenagers: Voting”
- 5/9/9/4 [ 27 sentences / 4 paragraphs = 6.75 average ]
